In the Loop - November

lo p in the

November 2021

Oplo People Magazine

Leighton Hall Volunteering Days Page 13

Page 8

News from the engine room

Page 20

Our Oplo Charity Heros

Contents New starters............................................. 03 An interview with................................... 05 News from the engine room............. 08 Oplo Impact............................................. 10 David Attenborough............................. 12 Leighton Hall volunteering days.......13 What’s to come for Oplo Impact....16 Volunteering with Oplo.......................17 The big Christmas appeal....................18 Our Oplo charity heroes.....................20

We’re reaching out to recruit people for our In the Loop editorial support committee.

We’re looking for roving reporters who can keep their ear to the ground and feed back great Oplo news stories from within the business.

To find out more email marketing@myoplo.co.uk

4 Louis......................................................... 22 An interview with................................... 25 Health and wellbeing............................ 26 CIPD conference.....................................30 Christmas opening hours.................... 32 Christmas jumper day........................... 33 5 years service........................................ 34 Top performers....................................... 37 Your extra mile........................................ 39

New starters

Welcome!

to the new starters who have joined in November!

Naley Alobari Senior Business Analyst Shavaun Morrisey Customer Relationship Manager Aimee Baker Completions Assistant Gary Addison Information Security Ops Lead Charlie Smail Administrator Chloe Oliver Completions Assistant Jessica Elliott Recruitment Advisor Lewis Butterworth Customer Relationship Manager

ing! e’re hir

W

like any d l u o w s If you the role n o n o ti informa , please email e availabl itment@ recru o.co.uk myopl

Ellie Machin Completions Assistant Aftab Aziz Specialist Customer Support Agent Blessing Olatoyan Senior Business Analyst

Aura: Personalised meditation for your employees Over 3,000 on-demand mindfulness sessions for meditation and restful sleep What’s Aura?

How does it work?

Aura is an app that gives your employees

Choose a mood or topic you’re interested in

access to more than 3,000 meditation, mindfulness, sleep and life coaching tracks.

It’s a great way to help your team deal with stress, anxiety and trouble sleeping.

It works a bit like Spotify, but for mindfulness. The more you use Aura, the more it gets to know you – delivering personalised recommendations and putting the perfect session at your fingertips.

It’s great for all levels of experience with a mix of shorter and longer tracks. You’ll find quick, three minute meditations, alongside full hour-long sessions.

How to redeem:

Your employees just need to search for “Aura” on Perkbox

We’ll give them a code to swap for three month’s access to the app

After three months, they can come back for another code

www.perkbox.com

(e.g. stress, anxious, sleep, tales for kids) Aura will recommend an audio track – as short as three minutes. The recommendations are based on hundreds of millions of data points from their users.

Listen to your track and rate it when you’re done. Aura will learn what you like and continuously improve your recommendations.

An interview with

Shavaun Morrisey Customer Relationship Manager, Consumer Division

Tell us a little bit about your background and where you have come from?

I grew up in Blackpool with 2 brothers and 2 sisters, it was a very busy household. After high school I went to college to study Public Services as I wanted to study Law at Uni so I thought this would be a good start. I got into Lancaster University to study Law with Criminology, however after my 1st year I decided it wasn’t for me and left to go travelling around Europe, which was amazing!

When I returned, I worked full time as a Team Leader for a company called Picsolve International within Blackpool Pleasure Beach. In 2019 I started my role in collections at ACI (now part of Perch). After working at ACI for close to 2 years, I left to work in the Care Industry and fulfill my desire to give something back to the community after Covid. Now here I am ready to start a new and exciting role in Collections at Oplo.

Three words to best describe you?

Engaging, dedicated and caring.

If you could travel to one destination right now, where would it be?

Definitely New York, as we are slowly approaching Christmas which is when I come alive!

What did you want to be when you were growing up?

A Criminal Barrister or working within the Police.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Invisibility, I love being nosey!

Oplo’s hidden talents with

Matt Davenport So Matt, a little birdy tells us you have some hidden talents, tell us more...?

That’s right, I do have a couple of hidden “talents” if that’s what you want to call them, but I perform stand-up comedy and run a monthly comedy club which I host, and I also run and host a podcast.

Do you have a favourite and/or worst gig that you have done?

I have many favourite gigs, for different reasons. But performing to a full Theatre in St Helens on the same bill as Gary Delaney and Adam Rowe was a real highlight. In terms of worst, there are a few. One that sticks in my mind was booked through an agent I used to work for, which was a beer festival in Great Harwood – I ended up performing 90 minutes to a family of 6, with people constantly interrupting me asking where the beer tent was!

Do you perform locally to Blackpool?

Yes, I run the Small & Shouty Comedy club out of Dirty Blondes Bar in Blackpool. We put a show on once a month with me hosting it. As the host, my job is to warm the audience up, introduce the acts and essentially just take the mick out people.

We run on the first Wednesday of every month, so if anyone wants to come down to watch they should give me a shout.

Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to get into stand-up comedy?

Just keep trying and don’t give up. Pick a style that suits your personality and write some material, and then just give a go. If the jokes don’t work, just re-write them and try again. I must try a joke 5 or 6 times before I am happy with it.

Now you mention a podcast – tell us more about that, what is it about?

It’s about American football, specifically the NFL. I’m a big fan of the sport.

How did this come about? Was it something you have always wanted to do?

It was during lockdown last year when I pitched an idea to one of my best mates about doing a show. We started just the 2 of us recording on Zoom and it turned into 3 live shows a week on YouTube and Facebook. We now have 5 hosts, 2 producers, 1 social media person, a website in production. We even have our own clothing brand!

We also have a small WhatsApp community with about 60 people from all over the country who are NFL fans, and some of us met for the first time at the recent London NFL games.

If people wanted to watch or listen, where can they find it?

Search Facebook or YouTube for 3rd & Short Podcast, you should be able to find us, but our Twitter handle is @3rdshortpod. We're always on the lookout for new listeners and viewers.

@3rdshortpod

News from The engine room (UNCUT)

Greetings Oplo family! Here I am again, in this my second humble contribution to our company periodical. I bring news of the goings-on in the engineering department.

Since last I wrote, we have waved a fond farewell to our Penta colleagues. Penta, as some of you may know, are the development contracting company that helped us create Oplo Connect. In the last couple of months we’ve worked to move knowledge and control of our systems into the heads, hearts, and hands of our Oplo engineering team members. Our parting with Penta has left us a little short-handed, but we’re working hard to hire new developers to recover our numbers.

So if any of you have a code-loving kid sister or brother who’s a whizz with computers, tell them to send their CV to richard.asbridge@myoplo.co.uk for a chance to interview.

We've launched our new auto-payments system. Thanks go to Adam Cooper, Matthew Leach, Kosh Podder, and Adrian Nixon for all their hard work on this project. This new microservice takes the pain out of payouts for our Car Finance crew, and paves the way for higher throughput for the whole team. The auto payout system allows key business rules to be configured; including daily payout limits, minimum and maximum payout thresholds, as well as automatic rescheduling of payments for the next business day when they occur after the cut-off time.

The system will speed up the payment process, but also seamlessly falls back to involving clever Oplo humans when a manual review is needed. This system is designed to be easy to extend, so we can add more business logic for Home loans and Personal loans in the near future.

Our case worker system has been extended with a number of quality of life improvements. We have a new handy case overview that will present clear and concise information with the minimum number of clicks. Customer employment details including address and phone number are now being automatically transmitted for use by the Collections team. So no more having to manually transcribe this information. We’ve also fixed a number of long-running bugs, improved our Broker API, and added a new real-time notification capability that helps the team understand who’s working on a case.

We’ve also added contract password protection and mobile number verification to the system for our customers, to improve security, and to make sure that contracts are only viewable by the intended recipient.

We're adding the Matomo Analytics suite to our user interfaces. This gives our marketing and business teams a deep understanding of how our customers behave, and how they use our systems.

Excellent analytics without compromising on security, privacy, and data protection.

Matomo is used and trusted by prestigious organizations such as The United Nations, The European Commission, Amnesty International, and NASA. Best of all, we don’t have to send our customer data out of our network, this means we can have rich analytics, a full understanding of our customer’s experience, and still be best in class when it comes to safeguarding our customers privacy and security.

Last but by no means least, we’re reviewing and modernizing our internal processes and engineering practices in order to improve delivery speed and code quality.

These changes are slowing us down a little in the short term, but they will greatly improve our ability to deliver systems for Oplo at speed. Recent work in this regard includes modularizing our code into individual repositories, improving the speed of our build pipeline, and figuring out the best way to automate our testing efforts. This means our system is now able to be rapidly built and deployed, one service at a time, in a matter of a few minutes, instead of needing big bang deployments that were taking up to half an hour to complete.

! o l p O g n i n e t s i l r o f s k n a h T

Ready to make an Impact Everything you need to know about our environmental initiative

ESG Oplo Impact

Monthly stats

! s e v i t a i t i n i ll a across

October Statistics Total trees purchased Staff donated to TFL Staff set up a DD with TFL

10136 15 13

Total raised for Charity Total Volunteering days

£39,728 33

Pawprint - staff signed up Percentage Average employee Pawprint

226 92% 12.46 Co2

Electric Vehicles Cycle to Work (Electric bike)

10 3

The Green Deal Qualified for the deal Rewards redeemed

26 19

Give All - payroll giving Staff signed up

8

David Attenborough tells COP26 conference delegates: The World is looking at YOU… Sir David Attenborough is a champion of humanity and Earth.

Over the years he has persistently warned us of our “last chance” to change our behaviour to prevent climate change damage of catastrophic proportions to our planet.

He urges people to “stop waste of any kind”, including energy, food and plastic.

We can all play our part …starting NOW!!

! g n i h c t a w r o f u o y Thank Debbie Waterman, Head of ESG

Take a look https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=iKoqQTRERnA

Leighton Hall Volunteering Days

a Huge Success!

In October over 20 of our people took part in two great volunteering days at Leighton Hall Estate.

“The day was a great opportunity to work with colleagues across the business and to make a difference and help Leighton Hall prepare their woodland for pollinators!”

Ajay Mitha

“Life often feels like a motorway stuck in rush hour traffic or out in the fast lane, it was so nice to get out into the open air and give something positive back to nature.”

Tiffiny Howath

The purpose of these days was to learn all about pollinators and their importance in achieving a balanced, sustainable environment. We prepared the woodland sites ready for bulb planting which was to support pollinators early food source with Woodland Daffodils and Snowdrops.

We asked our Oplo People what their favourite thing about the volunteering was, here is what you had to say…

“What a wonderful experience it was to volunteer at Leighton Hall Estate, not only to know we’ve done something super beneficial for the pollinators but to spend time with people that I wouldn’t usually have much interaction with, having a good old chin wag and laugh!”

Holly Wadeson “It felt great actually seeing what our hard work has created and we all had a good laugh whilst doing it, it’s definitely the right thing to do and I will be doing it again” Richard Sharp

“A great day! Really enjoyed it all!”

Karen Stewart

Greadtay!

“It was a great opportunity to spend time getting to know some of our Oplo People and doing something worthwhile in the great outdoors.”

Alison Hart

“Having the opportunity to plant 1000’s of amazing little carbon catchers (bulbs) knowing that they would have their part to play in reducing down CO2 and be there for years to come was an amazing thing to do…

Can’t wait to see all their beautiful faces next spring.”

Debbie Waterman “It was great to be offered the opportunity to go to Leighton Hall with the Oplo team.

Not only did we get to make a difference to the beautiful landscape by planting thousands of bulbs, we also got out in the fresh air and did some much needed exercise whilst building a relationship with my team members. It was a pleasure to be involved.”

Sheila Sanderson

“Great fun and 2 benefits….helping others is very rewarding and finding I had aching muscles in places I didn’t think I had muscles!!!”

Steve McNicholas

“I really enjoyed the day, supporting something that will make a difference to our environment was fulfilling. My favourite part was watching Ajay, Richard and Steve trying to pull down a tree”.

Adrian Watkin “I got to use a flint and tinder to start a fire (which I’ve never done before and certainly appealed to my inner caveman) then we threw trees on it until it was huge, it was for a good cause and I got paid for the privilege. What was not to love?”

Geoff Clark

“I loved the planting day at Leighton Hall, seeing people I hadn’t seen for ages and having a good catchup was very needed and the digging was quite therapeutic too. Can’t complain about the hot chocolate at the end either.”

Fiona Quarmby

“A great day getting to work with everyone.

Really enjoyed the chats I had with Adrian Watkin and seeing Ajay shift what looked like 100s of wheel barrows of leaves and branches.”

Jonathan Mylroie

“It was a fun day, being outside planting the bulbs, knowing what great pollinators they are! Also really good for mental health. It was brilliant to meet other Oplo people” Kathryn Harris

“It was just great to get out of the office and working as a team and speaking to other staff within the business that we wouldn’t necessarily communicate with on a day to day basis. Best part for me though was hacking through the trees and seeing the transformation from the morning to the afternoon. It was fantastic to see that with good team work and hard graft you can make a big difference in a short space of time. Look forward to going back in the Spring to see how it develops.

Thanks for the opportunity and I’ll definitely be up for doing it again.”

Craig Williams

What’s to come for

Oplo Impact:

Repair shop This brand new initiative aims to challenge our Oplo People to get items repaired and not contribute towards the inordinate amount of stuff we throw away here in Britain! We’ll locate local businesses close to all our sites so you’ll know where to go to make those old, worn items feel like new again! There are so many things that can be repaired and reused such as fixing the zip on your broken jeans, getting new soles on your shoes, rewiring a faulty electrical appliance and even getting new tyres on your bike. The opportunities are endless.

Women’s Health Club Covering topics such as miscarriage, infertility and menopause, this initiative aims to form an open, safe and confidential space to discuss any topic you like. We’ll strive to provide support not just from the group, but through third party organisations who can provide further expertise, support and guidance on a wide variety of topics.

How you can get involved

voluntfiring with Oplo!

The Bridge Project

Coffee4Craig

The Bridge Project in Blackpool are appealing for Christmas presents across all ages, and have reached out for volunteers.

Coffee4Craig, a homeless provision charity in Manchester, have reached out for volunteers.

The key priority for volunteering will be assisting to sort the presents and toys for the Christmas present appeal. The big task is matching gifts to ages and gender. Last year they provided over 1,700 gifts for families in need and vulnerable adults in the Blackpool area. They’ll be doing this from the 13th-17th December between 9am and 4pm (with an hour’s lunch between 1-2).

We have spaces remaining for Tuesday 14th and Friday 17th December.

They need people to help sort donations, clean and assist with general building maintenance. We're looking for a team of 4 people for this. Other tasks such as washing up and helping at the drop in would require a team of 2 people.

If anyone is local to Manchester and would like to get involved, email ESG@myoplo.co.uk

Rossall Beach Residents Christmas Community Beach Clean Monday 13th December 9:30am to 10:30am Meeting opposite 23 Rossall Promenade, FY5 1LP for a 09:30 start. Everyone is welcome on the beach including children and dogs accompanied by an adult. All equipment including litter picker, gloves and a sack will be provided, dress for the weather and bring suitable footwear for a pebble/shingle beach.

Pleas ESG@m e email if you’d yoplo.co.uk like t for any o volunteer activiti es.

The Big Christmas Appeal tmas!

s i r h C s i th r a t s be a

Throughout November and early December we'll be collecting food and essentials for 3 projects across the locations of our Oplo sites. These charities are: • The Bridge Project at Blackpool Salvation Army • The People’s Kitchen in Newcastle • Coffee4Craig in Manchester

The Bridge Project The Bridge Project suggested donations are: • Christmas chocolates • Christmas sweets • Mince pies • Christmas biscuits • Christmas pudding • Christmas napkins • Other non-perishable • Christmas treats with a best before date lasting until at least 28 December • Gloves and scarves

We need your help to provide gifts for children, young people and vulnerable adults who would otherwise have little or nothing to open on Christmas morning.

Please bring donations of new & unwrapped gifts for babies, children, teenagers and adults to our Blackpool office by Sunday 12th December.

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Coffee4Craig General Donations

Clothing Donations

Food Donations

Yes please - Bottled water, toiletries, sleeping bags, yoga/camping mats, rucksacks, towels, hand warmers, PPE.

Yes please - Boxer shorts, ladies underwear, tracksuit bottoms, jumpers, t-shirts, waterproof jackets - Sizes Small or Medium. Outdoor boots, trainers - Sizes 8-11.

Yes please - Tins of tomatoes, instant custard powder, UHT milk, sugar, tins of beans (baked beans or legumes), pasta, rice, flour, condiments.

No thanks - Duvets, pillows, tents, furniture, pots and pans, crockery, bric-a-brac, electrical items.

No thanks - Brief style underwear, formal jackets/blazers, button up shirts, polo shirts, formal/workwear trousers, dresses, scarves, formal/workwear shoes, flipflops, plimsoles/pumps.

No thanks - opened packets, leftovers, items with a short shelf life, items with a “useby date” (items with a “best before date” are fine). Pre-made food from non-commercial properties, fresh meat, tea bags, alcohol.

The People's Kitchen

Main Meals

All tinned meat - stewing steak, mince & onions, corned beef, tinned beef, meatballs, PEK pork, ham, burgers, Irish stew, chicken curry, minced beef chilli, Bolognese.

Please find a list of the items we use at The People’s Kitchen. Alternatively, some supporters may prefer to make a financial gift and we also accept supermarket points cards. Sweets are also acceptable.

Cooking Ingredients

Stock cubes especially vegetarian, sugar, flour, dried rice, ground white pepper, cooking oil, dumpling mix, sage & onion stuffing, brown sauce, Chinese, Thai, Mexican, Indian and cream cooking sauces, mixed spice, desiccated coconut, cooking chocolate, beef, chicken and onion gravy granules.

Drinks

Dilute orange, coffee, instant drinking chocolate, tea, individual cans of pop or bottles/ cartons of juice.

Puddings

Tinned or instant custard, tinned rice, peaches, fruit cocktail, apricots, mandarin oranges, pears, pineapple, jams & golden syrup, honey, large tins of evaporated milk, long life milk.

Tinned Veg

Mixed veg, garden peas, processed peas, potatoes.

We gratefully receive all gifts but please note that due to the generosity of previous donors, we currently have high volumes of some items, particularly pasta, baked beans and full sized boxes of cereal, and these items are therefore not needed.

Soup

Lentil, lentil & bacon, vegetable, mushroom (condensed), leek & potato, Scotch broth.

Toiletries

Deodorants, shower gel, shampoo, shaving cream/gel, men’s & ladies’ razors, toothpaste, tooth brushes, soap (bars and liquid), toilet rolls.

Clothing

New tracksuit bottoms, t-shirts, boxer shorts, jumpers, waterproof jackets, jeans small, medium, large, sleeping bags.

Household

Blue J cloths, red J cloths, green J cloths, large pan scrubs, large freezer bags, washing powder/tablets (preferably non scented), kitchen rolls, washing up liquid, toilet rolls, small boxes washing powder and laundry liquid.

Take-away bags

Small bags of crisps, small chocolate bars, individual biscuits e.g. kit kat, sweets, individual packs of cereal bars.

Our Oplo Charity Heroes!

As you’ll have seen over the last few months, we have been arranging more and more volunteering and fundraising activities across Oplo, ensuring we hit our Oplo Impact target of £50,000!

We understand it’s not always feasible for you to take part in the activities we arrange, but we always want to encourage you to take part in any fundraising or volunteering activities that may be close to your heart. It may seem small and insignificant to you, but I can assure you, any help and support will be greatly appreciated by them!

With that being said, we want to shine the spotlight on all the great things our Oplo People are doing outside of work to help their local communities and charities.

“In April I ran a 50 mile ultra-marathon with my best friend and we raised £1,500.00 for NHS charities.”

Adam Gamaz “I run with a running group and a number of those in the running group have raised money by running Marathons! Raising money for local charities like St Catherine’s Hospice and Seashell.

On 12th December a number of us are running a 5k paying the entry fee as sponsorship to go towards raising money for Manchester’s Children's Hospital.

One of our group has a little boy who has just been diagnosed with Leukaemia - so we are raising money for that.

“I did 10,000 steps a day for Samaritans in March and raised £180 & also did the dawn walk in September where I raised £30 and ended up helping organise.

On the back of me doing the walk in March for Samaritans I wanted to volunteer so in August I became the Rota Secretary for the Blackburn branch and I love it.”

Debbi Dullenty

I loved the Oplo volunteer day on 18th October too, at Leighton Hall.”

“I’ve never been a runner just something I started building into my fitness regime about 5 years ago - I only ever did the 100 meters race at school. I’ve been gradually increasing my distance and started even running up hills by doing a lot of Lakeland Trail events this year - just love getting out of those hills and getting fresh air into my lungs. I just do for fun really - I have though insanely signed up to do my first marathon in Manchester in April so will be fund raising then.”

Jonathan Mylroie

Islay Horton

Also in December I’ve signed up to a 12 Days of Christmas running challenge(I must be mad!!) Over 12 days(1st - 24th December - rest days are allowed.

I’ll be running between 1 and 12km (can select the days you carry out the runs) There is a 1 - 12mile option too but I’m not that brave. The entrance money for the challenge will go to local Charities.

So, that should keep me busy.

“It’s not a massive one like climbing a mountain or running the London marathon, but I help out at my son’s school on a Friday afternoon by taking a beginners’ rugby class. I’m also the manager of the Under 9’s rugby team at Preston Grasshoppers where I spend Sunday mornings coordinating fixtures and registrations for our 40 players within the age group. Watching them develop as players and grow as a team each week is hugely rewarding and enables me to give something back to the community” Sheila Sanderson

“On the 5th September me and my friend Gemma ran the Bedford half marathon. It was a personal goal for both us to take part and complete on many personal levels. We also were very passionate about raising money for our chosen charity, Macmillan, which added to our desire to undertake what was a daunting task for us both, having only really starting to run properly at the beginning of 2021.

So we went and were ready, raring to go and felt we had this. The run was very hard, mainly due to something unexpected in September, a heat wave that day. We started off well and noticed it was hot, but I was concentrating on the run and didn’t really realise how hot it was (it got to 30 degrees!).

Not wanting to interrupt my run I didn’t take any water on at the aid stations (can you guess what happens yet? Lol) and kept pushing through. By about 8 miles in of just over 13 miles I was spent, but due to personal drivers was determined not to stop and kept running and pushing through.

I am pleased to say I managed to complete the half marathon without stopping, got my medal and swag bag for good measure and felt great pride.

I made my way to the finish line to wait for my friend and managed to drink a few cups of water. Well, it all started going down hill from there, with the extremely hot weather and the lack of water taken on, I was not in great shape and suddenly started to realise this. I reached for the energy drink in the swag bag, bent down and that was it. Passed out bang, hit my head on the floor and was knocked unconscious. I woke up not being able to open my eyes or move my head which was scary and lots of paramedics around me trying to cool me down, then heat me up and closely monitoring my breathing and heart rate. I was rushed to hospital, after an ECG, lots of fluid, doctor visits and 7 hours later I was released with my hospital socks and half gown as in picture.

While not the ideal ending I was very proud of what we had achieved and very importantly raised £658.00 for Macmillan.”

Adrian Watkin

Fundraising in memory of

x e r t a e r G n y f l A

A note to our readers, the below contains stories about losing a child.

“Alfyn Greatrex was born sleeping at 24 weeks and 6 days, we got to spend some time with him after he was born due to a specialist piece of equipment called a cuddle cot - luckily Blackpool Victoria Hospital has one; but sadly not all hospitals do. If it wasn't for this special cot, we wouldn't have got to spend as much time as we did with Alfyn. It kept him cold so family could come and see him and we could get those extra invaluable cuddles. It saddens me deeply that not all families get that and that's something I want to help change.

It is my mission, to raise £1,600 so we can buy and donate a cuddle cot in memory of our Alfyn via 4Louis. There are currently 13 on the waiting list for one in the UK and we want to help get that number down.

Our wonderful friends have organised a fundraising event on 3rd December 2021 in Blackpool to raise funds and already there have been a lot of raffle prizes donated, which I’m pleased to say has now SOLD OUT! If you can't attend but still want to donate, please email holly.wadeson@myoplo.co.uk and she will pass over all the information”

Afton Greatrex

Fundraising in memory of

y e l g n a L y e l i Travis R

A note to our readers, the below contains stories about losing a child.

At the beginning of August our beautiful little boy Travis passed away very suddenly, just a few days before his second birthday. Due to the circumstances at the time Travis’s Dad was away from home in Germany.

Travis could have been offered something called a 'cuddle blanket' due to his age and size, however there wasn't one available at our local hospital at all, so the 4louis team, with some quick thinking provided two "cuddle cot" mats instead.

A "cuddle cot” unit is compact, discrete and normally designed to fit inside a moses basket to keep the environment homely at such a traumatic time.

This specialised piece of equipment is designed to keep a baby cool to allow their family to spend up to 72 hours with them. This allowed Travis to remain where he was within the hospital until his Dad could get home and hold him one last time.

There are 25 hospitals across the UK that are still on the waiting list for "cuddle blankets", which are designed for use with older children to allow families to spend some special time with their child without the need to visit a mortuary or sit in a cold room. The cuddle blanket is designed so that the child’s favourite quilt cover can be laid over them creating a comforting setting for the family.

The quick thinking and amazing support from the 4Louis team provided us 12 additional hours with Travis and for us both to be able to hold him one last time, for us that gift of time is priceless.

Our aim is to raise awareness of the fantastic work the 4Louis team do by providing useful tools, equipment, training to hospital units, hospices and other professionals who sadly have the job of comforting grieving families who suffer a miscarriage, stillbirth neonatal or child death. Not only this but also to raise enough funds to donate at least one "cuddle blanket" to a local hospital in Travis' name and give back to another family that needs time.

In Travis’ memory, we setup Sivart Sunflowers, a range of candles with proceeds going to 4Louis. This wonderful charity works across the country supporting anyone affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a baby or child.

The Christmas Range All our candles are priced at £6.00 with wax melts £2.00, plus £3.20 for postage.

Collection or delivery is available for free within the Sunderland area. If you would like to make a purchase, please drop us a message on our Facebook page - Sivart Sunflowers | Facebook and one of the team will be more than happy to help, if you don’t have Facebook please email holly.wadeson@myoplo.co.uk.

100% of our proceeds go directly to 4Louis.

We are aiming to raise £5,000 for the charity for them to purchase a fantastic cuddle blanket, giving parents the chance to spend valuable extra time with their children.

We are already over halfway there so please help us reach our goal by purchasing one of our lovely candles below: •

O' Christmas Tree - top notes of citrus, middle notes of Jasmine, oriental undertone, orchid, floral and pine and bottom notes of Spicy cinnamon and woody bark.

•

Melty Snowflakes - snow-covered pines with subtle undertones of patchouli and fruit.

•

Santa Baby - ripe blackberries and cut stems sitting on a heart of grape, mint, and raspberry with base notes of dry cedarwood.

•

Gingerbread - freshly baked gingerbread. Top notes of rich spicy warm gingerbread with middle notes of cinnamon, orange with hints of nutmeg and sweet sugary vanilla.

Wax melts Snowflakes - Frankincense & Myrrh, citrus peels, eucalyptus, juniper, and lavender leading to a spicy heart of cinnamon and clove rounded by orris.

Pinecones Well-loved fresh natural aroma associated with evergreen coniferous pine.

4louis: In Memory of Travis Riley Langley (enthuse.com) Thank you for all your support so far

Sivart Sunflowers

Amber and Gavin Langley Gavin a nd Amb er will be Blackpo in the ol 3rd Dec office on em deliver ber to orders!

An interview with

Andrew Hurst Educational Facilitator

Tell us a bit about your role within Oplo?

My position within Oplo is “Educational Facilitator”, that’s a fancy name for a trainer or teacher. Ultimately, I was employed to create a bespoke training package on financial education for delivery within school settings from the ground up. The reason behind the sessions is so that young people can make informed decisions with regards to their finances and financial products as they develop through their lives, and hopefully avoid getting into a cycle of bad debt and having poor financial habits.

What drew you to Oplo?

My position is new so the framework, sessions, information and research would all need to be assimilated from the ground up, and I would be able to mould and sculpt the position as I went. I also liked that the company genuinely seems to care about work-life balance and invests heavily in professional development of their staff as well as office niceties with coffee machines and an outside bar.

What are you currently working on?

At this minute in time, it would be easier to say what I’m not working on as I have several active projects all under the Financial Education programme all needing my attention with looming deadlines. In all seriousness, we’re in the final stages of piecing together a financial education brochure that will be distributed to schools and teachers inviting them to get in touch if the programme is something that interests them.

I have also been out to visit AFC Fylde to provisionally sign them up as our first FinEd customers. I’m also piecing together different information for the initial 6 classes ready for a practice run through with the powers that be.

Along with several spin off projects on the side including assisting the ESG team with their projects.

What have you learned in the last week?

To adapt at a moment’s notice, as your brief for a project can change at the 11th hour several times over!

What would you do (for a career) if you weren’t doing this?

Ideally something that required me to keep active and on the move with a good measure of adrenaline. From a young age I always wanted to be in the Royal Marines, I applied when I was in my 20s and went to Lympstone to complete a Potential Officers Course, however I wasn’t to be one of the 0.01%.

Subsequently, I joined the Fire Service and worked as a firefighter for several years which was lots of fun before I found my way into teaching and education.

Health and Wellbeing Festive finances from Andrew Hurst Without wanting to sound like the Christmas Grinch, the National Debt Advice Line has the following statistics that will make you spit out your mince pies in shock!

• Over a third of us borrow money to pay for Christmas gifts - that’s 16.9 million people.

• One in five of us put festive food on some form of credit - the equivalent to 10.4 million people.

• One in twenty will skip paying a bill at Christmas because they cannot afford to pay it. That works out at approximately 2.3 million late payment charges.

So, what can we do to eliminate our financial faux pas over the festive period?

Decide on a budget… and stick to it!

Making an agreement with family and friends to only spend a certain amount on each other will help to keep your budget under control. It may feel like you are being tight-fisted, but buying only for children and not their parents will also help. You’d be surprised how many parents understand this logic.

Shop Online By doing your shopping online you can not only save on shoe leather but also save getting soaked from shopping with the kids. You can also compare prices much more easily than you can going from shop to shop, and also have the convenience of it being delivered to your door, saving on travel costs. Some companies have flash sales at the end of November for Black-Friday and Cyber-Monday so capitalise on these.

Bargain Hunt Use Facebook for something other than looking at videos of boxer dogs howling like a police car; there are loads of local selling pages and Facebook has its very own marketplace. Check out eBay, Schpock, Gumtree and other similar sites to see if you can pick up a bargain. You know what they say; ‘One man’s junk is another man’s treasure’.

Start buying early Everybody knows someone that starts their Christmas shopping in January and puts it away until December. Well, they’re onto something there. By spreading the cost over a longer period, you won’t put yourself under unnecessary mental and financial pressure. Yes, we might have missed the boat for this Christmas, however plan for next Christmas by shopping in the up and coming January sales for Christmas 2022.

DIY Try making handmade gifts for your nearest and dearest to keep your overheads down. Photographs, calendars, jams and jellies - anything that you can make with your own fair hands. People appreciate the personal touch and you could save a small fortune doing it.

Don’t use your credit card As tempting as it may be, DO NOT USE YOUR PLASTIC! It’s all too easy to hand over a store card or credit card and worry about the consequences later.

Loyalty points and coupons With something like a Tesco Clubcard you get loyalty points for every purchase that you make. When Christmas time comes around see if you can use them towards buying gifts or even the Christmas dinner.

Boots have a well-publicised 3 for 2 offer on every year - take advantage of offers like these.

Have a browse in your Oplo Perkbox, there may be some savings to be had, if you were going to shop at that retailer anyway.

Sell unwanted gifts from last year We’ve all been there. You always get one present where you think, ‘Why on earth would my gran think I would appreciate an Elvis onesie?’ Rather than have it take up valuable space at the back of your wardrobe, put it on an auction site and make some money. Look out for discounted listing days on eBay, or even better use Facebook Marketplace.

Know your onions Don’t feel like you have to buy the Extra Special Luxury edition party food. Tests of a variety of brands are conducted every year and the cheaper brands nearly always come out on top. Hide the box if you must so that no one will know but don’t break the bank on the pigs in blankets.

Health and Wellbeing Christmas is a hard time of year for lots of people, for many different reasons. It can make existing problems feel worse, and add new ones.

Supporting others at Christmas: •

Understand that Christmas means something different to other people, and may bring up very different feelings. You might feel you're sharing a celebration, but that might not be what's happening for them.

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Let them know you understand Christmas can be difficult, and you're there for them.

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Tell them they're not alone. They might not know it's common to find things hard at this time of year.

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Listen to what they say, and accept their feelings.

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Ask if there are things you can start, stop or continue doing. You could suggest they take time to think and come back to you.

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Ask them if there are particular things about Christmas that are difficult for them, and ask what they think might help. For example, it could be helping them plan how to exit difficult situations, avoid certain activities or deal with difficult conversations.

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Remember they aren't trying to spoil Christmas. No one chooses to find things hard.

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Reach out to people who might be lonely, such as someone living in a care home, a carer, or someone in hospital.

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Look after yourself. Supporting someone else can be difficult. For example, you might feel sad or conflicted. It's okay to confide in someone about how this is affecting you. Your wellbeing matters too!

Please reach out to your Line Manager, HR or one of our 12 trained Mental Health First Aiders - Debbi Dullenty, Sally Howcroft, Melanie Wilson, Charise Tsang, Hannah Bryce, Fiona O'Brien, Holly Wadeson, Jake Quinn, Samantha Howarth, Chloe Smail, Louise Elms and Salma Ahmed if you want to talk about anything that may be concerning you.

We also have an Employee Assistance Programme, details can be found on the following page.

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Christmas Opening Hours

and Payday!

Friday 17th December 2021

- Christmas Payday

Friday 24th December 2021

- Close at 1pm

Saturday 25th December 2021

- Closed

Sunday 26th December 2021

- Closed

Monday 27th December 2021

- Closed Bank Holiday

Tuesday 28th December 2021

- Closed Bank Holiday

Wednesday 29th December 2021 - Normal Hours Thursday 30th December 2021

- Normal Hours

Friday 31st December 2021

- Close at 4pm

Saturday 1st January 2022

- Closed

Sunday 2nd January 2022

- Closed

Monday 3rd January 2022

- Closed Bank Holiday

Tuesday 4th January 2022

- Business as Usual

Friday 10th December

Christmas Jumper Day! Save the Children make sure children are safe and healthy.

They support them to learn, grow and become who they want to be.

Be Green! Please up-cycle a vintage jumper (rather than buy a new one) and decorate yourself!

A prize will be awarded to the best upcycled christmas jumper!

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OP M A E Text T 70050 and to to 2 £ e t dona dren l i h C he t e v a S

5 Years Service for

Caroline Bradshaw Senior Risk Manager

What's kept you at Oplo for all these years?

The People - Oplo people are such a lovely, enthusiastic bunch of colleagues who help and support each other. Culturally it’s a great place to work.

Which part of your role do you enjoy the most?

I enjoy developing my team and seeing them reach their potential.

What advice would you give to new starters?

Have a ‘can do’ attitude.

Shout up if you don’t understand something or think there’s a better way of doing it.

5 Years Service for

Shaun Wood

What's kept you at Oplo for all these years?

The same reason I joined really, the business in the first place, the people and the culture. Having worked in larger corporate businesses you soon realise that you’re pretty much a number but at Oplo you feel like you’re part of a family from the staff you work with every day right the way through to the Directors and CEO. Due to this support, it gives you the best platform to go the extra mile and be recognised for it. Until you’ve worked in a business where Senior Managers don’t know your name you don’t realise what a profound impact it has on your performance. We care about you as an individual at Oplo.

Which part of your role do you enjoy the most?

The chase for better results and better performance. We’re always looking at where we can develop our people and processes further to constantly improve on the results we achieve both financially and, more importantly, for our customers. Strange as it may seem, I enjoy that bit of pressure and nervous excitement you get when approaching a month end.

What advice would you give to new starters?

Invest in your future career with Oplo and they will invest in you. Oplo is a unique business and it’s really easy for you as a new member of the team to take ownership of your performance and see how this impacts the journey of the business, so invest yourself into what you do. Let the quality of your work speak for you, always be open to learning and new opportunities to demonstrate what unique skills you bring with you and never be frightened of change.

5 Years Service for

Rory Baker What's kept you at Oplo for all these years?

Taking a pay cut from my previous job that involved travel and a limited responsibility, I joined Oplo as a Service Engineer to take advantage of the exposure to all the systems in use in the company. I knew I would have a great opportunity to improve technically in a whole host of areas I had not supported before in my career. I grabbed this opportunity and 5 years on I have been involved in a plethora of technical projects, been promoted to Manager and lead a fantastic team I consider as family.

Oplo has continued to be challenging and as it’s never static, I continue to want to work here.

It is a never-ending job that requires continual adaptation, and this is pivotal in enjoying the job as we come to work each day. It’s not boring by any means.

Which part of your role do you enjoy the most?

What advice would you give to new starters?

In the early days, it was the people-focused part of my role. I hugely enjoyed being the IT guy that everyone knew would sort their issues out. I get a great deal of satisfaction from putting a smile on peoples’ faces whilst resolving issues and making their workday run a little smoother.

Nowadays, I am enjoying the influence I have on my team and implementing improvements across our estate.

Honestly? “Grab life by the stick!” A phrase a mate and I coined one drunk night long ago. Or as Sean Connery advises Christopher Lambert in a classic film - “Feel the Stag, Highlander”.

Oplo really is a land of opportunity if you want to progress. There are so many stories of staff making the most of these opportunities and thriving. Oplo recognises talent and if you’re willing to show it, you can succeed.

! s r e m r o f r e p Top Consumer Servicing

Sarah Chieffo Reasons for the nomination...

Sarah has been a legend this month and battled through Christmas Direct Debits. She is a consistent hard worker and she will always do her absolute best to ensure that she does a fabulous job! I am glad we have her on our team!

Consumer Lending

Amy Shuttleworth Reasons for the nomination...

Amy has helped me massively since I have started and is lovely to work with.

For how well she has done at training Gemma and for always brightening my day.

Done so well with training, always willing to help.

Always so approachable for the whole team and always has a smile on her face.

Mortgage Servicing

Joanne Coey Reasons for the nomination...

A great month for Joanne in terms of performance! Joanne is an asset to the Homeloans Collections Team and her hard work is reflected in her fantastic call stats which are regularly at the top of the leader board.

She effectively manages her workload and the quality of her work is always of a high standard.

Thank you for your continued hard work (and welcome back to the office)!

Mortgage Lending

Tina Heckman Reasons for the nomination...

Tina is very new to the packaging department, and she is not afraid to get stuck in. She has hit the ground running and we are looking forward to seeing her improve more each day.

Beth Howarth Reasons for the nomination...

Beth for always offering to help her team members and a great improvement in performance, exceeding in all areas for October.

Fiona O'Brien Reasons for the nomination...

Fiona has been doing her own approvers role along with assisting with the training in the department. Thank you, Fiona.

YourExtra Mile Understanding At Oplo we take time to get to know you and understand your situation. We look for the possibilities, not the problems. Want to thank someone for showing a unique level of understanding or compassion?

Fair We believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to better themselves. We’re always open minded and even handed with our customers and with one another. Has your colleague gone above and beyond to help you better yourself by being open minded and accepting?

Enabling We give hard working people the tools to help themselves. We’re always helpful and practical in our approach. Has a team member supported you in powering your potential, enabling you to achieve a goal?

Enterprising We’re entrepreneurial and authentic. We genuinely believe that when you fulfil your potential everyone succeeds. Why not congratulate one of your colleagues on showing great initiative within the team or towards a customer!

“Understanding” “Gina Clark-Wood and the QA Team have continued to evolve with the needs of the business and we recently enhanced our sampling to include some additional areas including elements of Speech Analytics and also some additional focus on new starters and the Collections Admin Team. As always they have been fully receptive and welcoming of the changes and just got on with the work - thanks all.”

Rick Keeble

“Enabling” “Rachael Hanby - Providing training and coaching to our new team members and being there to support them.”

Sara Evans

“Penny Andonegui - Penny has settled into the business so well, she always has a positive attitude and is a joy to work with.”

Jenna Wilkinson

“I would also like to recognise Paul Tansley and the Complaints Team; after seeing Group complaint numbers fall every month from April to August, that trend was unfortunately bucked in September and October with a significant increase in CMC driven irresponsible lending complaints. Similar to the QA Team, they have efficiently dealt with the increase in workloads (which as a result has also been seen in the number of DSARs being received and will increase the amount of FOS liaison required in the coming months) - thank you for your ongoing support and efforts guys.”

Rick Keeble

“Bruce Reynolds - Bruce has done so much training with multiple new starters as well as taking on additional tasks and, whilst he has taken everything on he still kept a smile on his face. He is also so patient.”

“The Consumer Lending Customer Service Team for their continued hard work and efforts. In my absence the team have shown they can work alone and get on with all work no questions asked.

Jenna Wilkinson

Well, done for all your hard work over the last month ! Nice to see the team doing well. ”

You take a huge weight off my shoulders daily by consistently delivering and being amazing at managing the incoming tickets and stepping up with regards to small change.

Helen Travis

“Luke Curbishley, Caleb Haley and Dylan Jones No matter what I throw at you guys, you take it and always deliver.

I’d be lost without you all, thanks so much!”

Your Extra Mile

Emma McNulty

“Enterprising” “Sara Evans, Laura Walters, Mon Teodoro, Rory Baker, Emma McNulty, Catherine Dunbar, Phil Eastham and Alex! They were all extremely ENTERPRISING when we asked them to help us with a spot of filming in the office. Each one threw themselves into it, despite it being out of their comfort zone. Huge thanks for a job well done.”

The Marketing Team

“Congratulations to Matt Hastings on achieving your CIPD Level 3 in HR Practice! Working full time and studying towards a qualification isn’t easy but you passed with flying colours! Thank you for all your hard work, you’re an asset to the HR team”.

Sally Howcroft

“Andrew Hurst and Chris Whittaker - Both Andrew and Chris joined the business in brand new roles.

The biggest challenge was to create a department / concept from the ground up. Both Andrew and Chris have embraced this challenge and hit the ground running.

To never have these roles in the business prior to the guys joining and to now be in a position to offer 1) a suite of Educational Programmes to local schools, charities and academies from our very own branded bus from January 2022 is a monumental effort and 2) to create a new concept for internal and external communications our own Communication hub where all the new videos and animations will be housed on our own You Tube channel, which is again an Oplo first.

Outstanding effort and commitment and is a pleasure to assist the guys to power their potential to reach theirs and the company’s goals and objectives.”

Debbie Waterman

“I’d like to recognise Geoff Clark from Finance for his outstanding efforts and support in producing a set of bespoke reports and People MI for me!”

Steve McNicholas

“Fair” “Rhian Jackson - Stepping up and taking accountability in my absence.”

Sara Evans

Your Extra Mile

“I am going to nominate Ian Ashton for the work he is doing in setting up the Project Management Office (PMO). His energy and drive to get it set up, along with working with Opco, MidCo and the tech teams to get it established and delivering change is great.”

Sarah Wiggin

“I’d like to recognise Debbie Waterman and Chris Whittaker for their work in devising and producing the Oplo ESG video for a recent Pollen Street conference. It was wonderfully received and really showcased all the great work we do under Oplo Impact!”

Steve McNicholas